Stanley Hauerwas is sorry to tell you, "but your salvation is in doubt."

Stanley Hauerwas is worried about the church -- at least the church in the United States. I don't think it would be an overstatement of Hauerwas' position to say he believes that, like the Israelites at the foot of Mt. Sinai, the church in America has lost the ability even to recognize idolatry and is dancing merrily around a golden calf -- beautiful to be sure, but powerless to save.

Some dismiss Hauerwas as merely a "bomb thrower" or an "ivory tower prophet." Maybe such comments contain some truth, and maybe they don't. This much is clear, at least to me: dismissing Stanley Hauerwas because you dislike him is a big mistake. He works tirelessly to remind us that Christians who happen to live in the United States are surrounded by seduction, and it is not altogether clear that we even know it. That's a dangerous place to be.

Not too long ago he spoke to a group of youth ministers at Princeton Theological Seminary and was, um, provocative (surprise!). Here's a slice of some typically controversial Stanley:

I went to church summer camp once when I was growing up in Texas. I remember the highlight of the camp was watching the sun go down on the last night from a mountain—well, a hill (it was Texas)—while we sang “Kumbayah.” This was an attempt to give us a “mountain top experience” that we could identify with being or becoming a Christian. About the last thing I would want is for you to have such an experience here. I do not want to make Christianity easy. I want to make it hard.

I assume most of you are here because you think you are Christians, but it is not at all clear to me that the Christianity that has made you Christians is Christianity. For example:

How many of you worship in a church with an American flag?
I am sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.

How many worship in a church in which the Fourth of July is celebrated?
I am sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.

How many of you worship in a church that recognizes Thanksgiving?
I am sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.

How many of you worship in a church that celebrates January 1 as the “New Year”?
I am sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.

How many of you worship in a church that recognizes “Mother’s Day”?
I am sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.

I am not making these claims because I want to shock you. I do not want you to leave the Princeton Forum on Youth Ministry thinking that you have heard some really strange ideas here that have made you think. It is appropriate that you might believe you are here to make you think, because you have been told that is what universities are supposed to do, that is, to make you think. Universities are places where you are educated to make up your own mind. That is not what I am trying to do. Indeed, I do not think most of you have minds worth making up. You need to be trained before you can begin thinking. So I have not made the claims above to shock you, but rather to put you in a position to discover how odd being a Christian makes you.

This is the most provocative part of the essay, but by no means is this the best part. If you're still reading and want a little more, click this for Hauerwas' brilliant answer to the question, "Why did Jesus Have to Die?" You will be blessed.

Pray for Christians in Iran

Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. Hebrews 13:3

This story really captured my heart today (click). Though it seems surreal, it's not a scene from an action movie. Men and women who convert to Christianity in Iran are being rounded up and imprisoned for it. Many believers sit in jail or worse as I write. This is not new, of course, but we tend to be a bit isolated here. Not too many of us know what it's like to be persecuted for our faith; I sure don't. Frankly, I fear that this has as much to do with how we live out our discipleship as it does with where we live.

If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. John 15:19-20

Following Jesus, or so He claims, will never be safe, although "going to church" seems to come with few repercussions. But we'll save that discussion for another day.

For now, let's all pray for our brothers and sisters in Iran who -- for following the Prince of Peace -- undergo unspeakable horror . This sort of thing is not so rare as we might think. It is not confined to any one region of the globe, and it is not absent from any either.

I came across these lyrics recently (though I've never heard the song). Entitled, "How Long?," it seems appropriate today.

As we bring our songs of love today
Do you hear a sound more glorious?
Like the mighty roar of ocean waves
Many witnesses surround us
It’s a harmony of costly praise
From the lips of those who suffer
Of sighs and tears and martyrs’ prayers
Until this age is over.

How long, Lord, till you come?
How long till the earth
Is filled with your song?
How long until your justice
Shines like the sun?
How long, Lord, till you come?
How long till the earth
Is filled with your song?
How long, how long?

Lord, help us to live worthy of
Our sisters and our brothers
Who love you more than their own lives
Who worship as they suffer
To embrace the scandal of the cross
Not ashamed to tell your story
To count all earthly gain as loss
To know you and your glory

O Lord,
We ask for strength beyond strength for those who love you even in the face of persecution, those who offer 'costly praise.' Deliver them from their captors, and protect them from all harm. Be with those who imprison Christians and let them see your love in our sisters and brothers in prison. Above all else, O Lord, may your Name be glorified as followers of The Way are faithful to you in all things. Through Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.

Bible Rap - Video of the Week

Bible Rap -- (only for those with 4 minutes to laugh)

NT Wright speaking informally about the Bible -- and other topics!

In an interview last year (the audio is also available), NT Wright had this to say about the Bible and his book, The Last Word:

Silly title, by the way. That was Harper’s folly to call it that. It wasn’t my idea. Fancy having a book called The Last Word! I mean… it’s very silly. If I was going to write a book called The Last Word it would be on Christology, not on Scripture. “In the last days, God has spoken to us by his Son…”

But I’ve been trying to stress that the risen Jesus does not say to the disciples, “All authority on heaven and earth is given to the books you chaps are going to go off and write.” He says, “All authority on heaven and earth is given to Me.” So that if we say that Scripture is authoritative, what we must actually mean is that the authority which is vested in Christ alone is mediated through Scripture.

That’s a more complicated thing than simply having a book on the shelf, full of right answers that you can go and look up. It’s more a way of saying that when we read Scripture and determine to live under it, we are actually saying we want to live under the sovereign lordship of Jesus mediated through this book.

When you say it like that, then all sorts of other things happen as a result, like what is the sovereign lordship of Jesus all about? Is it simply to fill our heads with right answers to difficult questions? Well, right answers to difficult questions are better than wrong answers to difficult questions. But no, the authority of Jesus Christ is there to transform and heal and save the world, to make the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. So the question then is, how does the authority of Scripture serve that purpose?. And that’s actually much more interesting than simply using Scripture to settle or raise indeed doctrinal disputes within the church.

Classic Wright.

The Last Word - Chapter One (God as our authority and authority as something altogether different)

"The risen Jesus, at the end of Matthew's gospel, does not say, 'All authority on heaven and earth is given to the books you are all going to write,' but 'All authority on heaven and earth is given to me'" (xi). When John declares that “in the beginning was the Word” he does not reach a climax with “and the word was written down” but “and the word became flesh.” The main thrust of Wright’s argument in The Last Word is that Christians must understand the “authority of Scripture” as shorthand for “the authority of God exercised through scripture” (p. 25).

Scripture itself assumes throughout that all authority to belong to God – and to God alone. Thus scripture points away from itself to the true authority – God, and to His Son to whom all authority has been given. Thus when Christians speak of “the authority of scripture” we are dealing with a highly condensed phrase that carries within it a lengthy narrative. “It must mean, if it means anything Christian, “the authority of God exercised through Scripture” (25). But what does that mean? And how does it function?

The situation is complicated because the Bible is generally “not the sort of thing that many people envisage today when they hear the word “authority” (25). For the most part it is a story. It is not a list of rules, though it contains rules. It is not a systematic presentation of doctrine, although it surely contains doctrine. It is, from beginning to end, the story of God seeking to reconcile His creation to himself. How can a story be authoritative?

Wright's answer is interesting: "If the commanding officer comes into the barrack-room and begins, 'Once upon a time,' the soldiers are likely to be puzzled” (26). But what if, Wright asks, the officer “briefs the soldiers about the nature of the mission and the people they will likely encounter, and how the current situation arose,” i.e. tells them a story? They will then understand more clearly the nature of their job as soldiers. Whether this is the way the military works or not, it is an exercise of authority, according to Wright, and likely a more effective one than a straightforward list of orders with no accompanying briefing.

What we need to recognize then, is not so much the authority of scripture, but rather the authority of God. This involves seeing God’s authority as his sovereign power accomplishing the renewal of all creation. The authority of scripture is a sub-branch of several other theological topics. The Bible is not simply revelation or a devotional manual.

Wright notes that the phrase, “authority of scripture” is prominently used by those who, usually in a minority, oppose something done or believed by the “liberal” establishment. When such dissidents find themselves in power, they very often quickly subdivide into groups reading the Bible this way or that. “This itself suggests that an over hasty appeal to scripture does not in fact work. We need to set scripture within the larger context which the Biblical writers themselves insist upon: that of the authority of God himself” (28).

But God’s authority is a different sort of authority from what we’re used to. It is less like a final court of appeal or a list of rights and wrongs, and more like what we see in Jesus -- healing power (authority over evil) and new teaching (authority that creates a new reality). This healing and new way of living is God's goal for all of creation - not just humanity.

The key question is what role does Scripture play within God’s accomplishment of this goal? According to Wright it does more than give us information about God; it actively takes part in the saving work God is accomplishing. “Scripture is there to be a means of God’s action in and through us – which will include, but go far beyond, the mere conveying of information” (30). Thus scripture is not mere revelation (in the conveying information sense) and more than a mere witness to revelation. God is not to be understood as absent, but sending us information (the Bible), but “present, albeit transcendent” (31).

“God does indeed speak through scripture… We must not confuse the idea of God speaking, in this or any other way, with the notion of authority. Authority, particularly when we locate it within the notion of God’s kingdom, is so much more than that. It is the sovereign rule of God sweeping through creation to judge and to heal. It is the powerful love of God in Jesus Christ putting sin to death and launching new creation” (33).

Wright concludes chapter one noting three things indicated by the Bible’s role in the church: 1) The Biblical God is a God who speaks. Thus reading to hear and to know God is not too great a stretch. 2) We need to think differently than what we're capable of left to our own devices. Part of scripture's role is to show us how to think -- and enable the thinking. 3) God’s power is available to all who ask for it in order to participate in God’s mission of re-creation.

Not the last word on NT Wright's The last Word

Continuing our exploration of this great little book...

I met an interesting guy in a Christian bookstore not too long ago. We were both looking at Bible commentaries, exchanging small talk. After a few minutes he began to comment on the commentaries I was favoring, and it became clear he was a bit bothered because I was, as he put it, “maybe focusing on the wrong kinds of commentaries.” Now, I know he was trying to be helpful, and he was a nice guy, but once I discovered he was a fundamentalist Baptist something in me wanted to say, “This is a Methodist bookstore. All they have are the ‘wrong kinds of commentaries.’” Biting my tongue, I kept looking at the books, tried to sort of listen, and just let him talk. He told me why this commentary was “untrustworthy”, why that one was “liberal,” and why another did not respect the “authority of Scripture.” What I wanted to tell him, but did not, was this: The Bible is not the highest authority in the church. Now, if you grew up in a fundamentalist church, or if you had your faith formed in such a church you might be bothered by the statement that the Bible is not the church's highest authority. But if we are to be a Christian church we would do well to consider just what is the church's highest authority -- if it's not the Bible. Chapter One - coming up.

The Jesus Creed

The Jesus Creed

This creed was originally shared at the Emergent Convention, Nashville, May 2004.

By Brian McLaren

We have confidence in Jesus
Who healed the sick, the blind, and the paralyzed.
And even raised the dead.

He cast out evil powers and
Confronted corrupt leaders.
He cleansed the temple.
He favored the poor.
He turned water into wine,
Walked on water, calmed storms.

He died for the sins of the world,
Rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father,
Sent the Holy Spirit.

We have confidence in Jesus
Who taught in word and example,
Sign and wonder.
He preached parables of the kingdom of God
On hillsides, from boats, in the temple, in homes,
At banquets and parties, along the road, on beaches, in towns,
By day and by night.

He taught the way of love for God and neighbor,
For stranger and enemy, for outcast and alien.

We have confidence in Jesus,
Who called disciples, led them,
Gave them new names and new purpose
And sent them out to preach good news.
He washed their feet as a servant.
He walked with them, ate with them,
Called them friends,
Rebuked them, encouraged them,
Promised to leave and then return,
And promised to be with them always.

He taught them to pray.
He rose early to pray, stole away to desolate places,
Fasted and faced agonizing temptations,
Wept in a garden,
And prayed, “Not my will but your will be done.”
He rejoiced, he sang, he feasted, he wept.

We have confidence in Jesus,
So we follow him, learn his ways,
Seek to obey his teaching and live by his example.
We walk with him, walk in him, abide in him,
As a branch in a vine.

We have not seen him, but we love him.
His words are to us words of life eternal,
And to know him is to know the true and living God.
We do not see him now, but we have confidence in Jesus.

Amen.

The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God – Getting Beyond the Bible Wars

Scripture is God’s true story. It not only tells the truth about God, but also renders the true God truly with us. The God thereby rendered is not the product of ancient fertile imaginations, not a projection of the highest and best aspirations of human spiritual striving, not some mythic configuration of the human psyche. This God is the stranger who comes to us and speaks to us Luther’s “external Word.” If not then we would have had absolutely no means of knowing this God. The primary agent of scripture is God; the primary author of scripture is God; the concern of scripture is God. This suggests that our toughest challenge in reading the Bible is not that it is ancient and written in foreign tongues but rather that we live in a narcissistic, self-obsessed culture that has a myriad of ways of deluding us into thinking that we can be gods ourselves.

Proclamation and Theology, William Willimon

Today we begin a study of NT Wright’s book, The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God – Getting Beyond the Bible Wars. NT Wright, Bishop of Durham, England, is one of the leading New Testament scholars in the world. He is definitely someone worth reading, and you can check out the unofficial NT Wright page online. It has a lot of free Wright stuff.

“Writing a book about the Bible,” Wright quips in the preface, “is like building a sand castle in front of the Matterhorn.” That is almost certainly true, but Wright’s The Last Word is one fine little ‘sand castle’ – and is worth our exploring as we continue to discuss the role and nature of the Bible for Christians. We might do well to consider Wright’s next comment: “The best you can hope to do [when building such a ‘sandcastle’] is catch the eye of those who are looking down instead of up, or those who are so familiar with the skyline that they have stopped noticing its peculiar beauty.” While we study about the Bible, let’s not even for a little while stop reading the Bible. That would be a travesty. It is not my intention to take your eyes off the Matterhorn, but rather to consider what it is about the majestic peak that moves us to approach it and blesses us when we do. It is in the reading and in the praying words of scripture that we come to understand God’s way and will for the world and thus for ourselves.

I began this post with a quotation from William Willimon not because it’s the best summary of what the Bible is or how it functions. It’s not. It does not deal with issues of inspiration or anyone's claims of inerrancy. It says nothing about how the Bible functions as authority for the church. It provides nothing for those who wonder how we got the Bible and little for those who wonder why we should believe it. But it does make a couple of enormous claims about the Bible, ones I think the church can ill-afford to forfeit, but which we are, in surprisingly large numbers surrendering, or at least never coming to terms with in our reading, our devotional lives, our community’s mission, and our ethics. I encourage you to return to Willimon’s words (but the Church’s claim from the beginning) as we discuss Wright’s book:

The primary agent of scripture is God; the primary author of scripture is God; the concern of scripture is God.

Continuing with the Preface (I usually skim or skip the Preface of books altogether , but not when the book is NT Wright’s) we find several great questions that Wright believes are crucial for our conversation.

How can what is mostly a narrative text be authoritative? It’s one thing to have commands, instructions on what to do or not do. But when we are dealing with stories, narrative, there tends not to be much explicit "ought, must or should." No direct address or orders. No stated guidelines for living. How does a story function authoritatively?

Wright also asks how we can consider the Bible our authority when Jesus says (in the Bible), “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”? What does it mean to say that “the authority of Jesus is somehow exercised through the Bible”?

That’s a lot to chew on for one night, so I’ll end as Wright does, with this prayer from the Anglican tradition:

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all scripture to be written for our learning, grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life which thou hast given us in thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

What's Your View of the Bible? A thought provoking QUIZ...

Christians do some very odd things when they gather to worship. They rehearse the death of their founder, and eat a “meal” to commemorate that death. The meal has two courses: make-believe blood and faux flesh. Christians will ritually "kill" converts, burying them in water, and they sing songs of love to Persons their eyes have never seen.

Certainly worthy of mention among the weird and wonderful things Christians do is this: they open an ancient book (actually a collection of writings), read from it or listen to it being read, and with some few exceptions, they will expect to be addressed in some sense by the Creator of the Universe. They even give little speeches to explain this reading and to demonstrate its relevance to following their Leader.

Now, that may not strike you as an odd practice. And if it doesn’t strike you as odd, then you’ve probably been in the church quite a while -- because this is the picture: Ancient book, writers usually unknown, bizarre stories. The book is handed down generation to generation, so that we can read from it and say, “This is the Word of the Lord.”

Thanks be to God.

If I can remove my tongue from my cheek for a moment, let me ask you a question: what do we mean when we say things like “This is the Word of the Lord?”

What do you mean by it?

Are you saying it is inspired? Trustworthy? Beneficial?

I found a really interesting QUIZ that I think you’ll enjoy. Click this >>> Hermeneutics Quiz

What Christians never do is open Mein Kampf, or The Complete Works of Shakespeare, or the New York Times, and expect to hear the Word of the Lord. Why is that?

What is your view of the Bible?
What is your church's view?
Does it matter?

I was a Stranger…

"To welcome the stranger is to acknowledge him as a human
being made in God's image; it is to treat her as one of equal worth
with ourselves - indeed, as one who may teach us something out of the richness of experiences different from our own."

-- Sister Ana Maria Pineda

Every once in a while an extraordinary opportunity comes along – and you pray only that you recognize it and take advantage. Maybe it’s meeting someone who just might be the love of your life. Or the job offer that comes your way, and you’re not sure – should I accept it or not?

The writer of Hebrews says something about wonderful opportunities that come our way. “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2) I think the great opportunity is not that we hit the hospitality jackpot and have angels in our living room, although that would make for an interesting evening. The really important opportunity is to love someone who you do not know and who does not know you (a stranger).

Interestingly, the phrase “hospitality to strangers” comes from a single Greek word, philoxenia. Philoxenia itself is a compound word: from philos, meaning love (like Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love) and xenos, meaning stranger (as in xenophobia, fear of strangers). So what the writer tells his readers is that they “must not fail at loving the strangers” among them.

Why? Maybe it’s because when we love the stranger we love as God loves -- with a love that puts us at risk, a love that gives expecting nothing in return.

According to Jesus, the chance to do something truly great comes along more often than we may think. Problem is, we’ve been trained not to see the opportunities, or not to see them for what they really are (and the world has a way of making good students of us all).

The poor, the lonely, the hungry, the weak, the fallen, the strangers – all the marginal people – from one angle they are our opportunity to do something great: minister directly to Jesus himself. “I was once a stranger to you,” Jesus says, “and you took me in.”

The Thai family - strangers to us and we to them. PCC is thrilled to have the opportunity to reach out with the love of Christ to the Thais. Arriving this Tuesday (5/13) from Burma, the Thais bring to us an incalculable gift.

Compassionate God, make your loving presence felt to refugees, torn from home, family and everything familiar. Warm, especially, the hearts of the young, the old, and the most vulnerable among them. Help them know that you accompany them as you accompanied Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in their exile to Egypt. Lead refugees to a new home and a new hope, as you led the Holy Family to their new home in Nazareth. Open our hearts to receive them as our sisters and brothers in whose face we see your son, Jesus. Amen. (taken from United Nations High Commission for Refugees)

Why Ipsissima Vox?

1. Why start a blog?
   
2. Why start this particular blog?
3. Why the name Ipsissima Vox?

What the world needs now is just one more blog, right? Well, not exactly. There are millions of blogs on the web, covering every subject imaginable. Web logs on religion and faith are like Baptists -- there's seemingly one hiding behind every bush (no offense intended). So why begin another?

I'm beginning this blog in the hope that it will be an effective tool for generating reflection and open discussion among the friends and members of Peachtree Christian Church. We have precious little time for thinking together about the Faith. Maybe this blog will help provide us more opportunity for careful consideration of life together in Christ. Maybe it will also help us somewhat overcome our urban and suburban sprawl. Blogs allow people who can't literally gather together (or who can't gather easily) to join in a discussion despite their lack of proximity. As a church located in midtown Atlanta, Peachtree Christian Church knows all about the challenges of being spread across a large city. One goal of this blog is to bring us together through the sharing of ideas, insights, questions and encouragement. Along these lines, the blog is supplemental to our LIFE Groups (small groups devoted to fellowship and Bible study).

Some may question the suggestion that a blog can "bring us together." They make a good point. Virtual community is no substitute for actual community. So (though it really shouldn't have to be said) let us continue to meet together without fail each week: celebrating Holy Communion, working together on various ministries, encouraging each other, occasionally even exasperating each other, but always struggling by the power of the Holy Spirit to become the sort of alternative polis that reflects the image of Jesus to the world.

The phrase "Ipsissima Vox" (which is Latin for "the very voice") is used by Jesus scholars to describe a saying which, though it is presented in the gospels or other sources as the very words of Jesus is probably more like a paraphrase, or a summary of the type of thing Jesus said. Sometimes we don't have his exact words, but we can still hear his voice. The gospel writers didn't employ the precision of modern historians, but they did give us the gist, a reflection of what Jesus said - and it is enough. Ipsissima Vox. His very voice.

May we be led by the Spirit, informed by the Word, and guided by tradition -- so that what we share with each other on this blog will reflect and honor the very voice of Christ.

Ipsissima Vox.

No small hope.